Archimedes, the greatest mathematician and engineer of antiquity, remains essentially little known despite the immense significance of his inventions. Most of his original works have been lost, and this fact explains our lack of knowledge about a multitude of discoveries and constructions that have often become legendary: his burning mirrors with which he allegedly set fire to the Roman fleet, giant catapults, colossal cranes that lifted ships into the air and then let them crash down, and his famous hydraulic clock.
Archimedes was the first to discover the use of steam and to construct the steam cannon; he invented the odometer for measuring distances, the dioptra for astronomical observation, the planetarium (celestial sphere), and the famous screw that lifted water—an apparatus still used today. This is the first time in Greek bibliography that a complete account of Archimedes’ mechanical constructions is presented, based on reconstructions of his works made by Leonardo da Vinci and the Greek scientist Ioannis Sakas.
